


Songuisendus Anuncemise

by Estirose



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: F/M, Futurefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:29:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shang contemplates an order that will send himself and Mulan into battle again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Songuisendus Anuncemise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isabeau](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau/gifts).



Li Shang studied the scroll before him, frowning at it, or at least at the characters inked upon its surface. Just a few years out of their last one, there was another war brewing, and the call to arms had begun. The army was starting to conscript and bring out of retirement its old warriors, and two of them resided in his house. The orders were clear: Li Shang, and his wife Mulan, were to return to duty.

As head of the family, he could make a decision about whether his wife went to war or not. He should forbid her to go. But Mulan didn't belong to just him; she belonged to China as its hero, and who was he to deny his country the hope that she brought? Did he have the right to deny them the quick-thinking heroine who had saved them all? She was an asset to the imperial army, and by all rights, belonged there, out in the field.

But she was also his wife, the mother of his children. When his father had gone to war, he at least had his mother. If they both went, they'd be leaving their children alone.

Clenching his fist, he remembered when he'd discovered the remains of his father's army, just before he himself had nearly been killed - had it not been for Mulan's quick, crazy thinking. He had lost his father that day, and could only grieve afterwards, in private. He had come close to losing Mulan too, abandoning her because there would be no women under his command. But he would not lose her that day. And he did not want to lose her now. She, with the energy of a teenager, even as a wife and mother. She, who trained with him so that they were both fit, because they both knew that a day like this might come, even as they hoped it would never come.

Listening to his children run about, he closed his eyes, something inside him telling him he should consult Mulan. But she was a soldier; she would follow orders, even if it meant leaving their children orphans. Mulan was a solder just as she was a mother and a wife; it was what she was meant to be. It was not a woman's work, but it was Mulan's work, and he could not deny her that.

Opening his eyes, he went to tell his wife.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Know Your Destination (Songuisendus Anuncemise Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11878485) by [snowynight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight)




End file.
